


Start to Melt

by enmity



Category: Tales of Series, Tales of Symphonia
Genre: F/M, Implied Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 17:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17349776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enmity/pseuds/enmity
Summary: There is something about her that compels him to hold his gaze.





	Start to Melt

The girl sits up halfway as blood trickles a slow stream down the rough gash across her arm, the other one vaguely outstretched to take the gel Genis hastily pushes onto her. He continues to fret long after his sister steps in – pushing him aside with one hand as the other readies bottled ointment and a half-finished roll of bandage.

Resources dwindle, and healing artes can only guarantee so much. Presea’s eyes remain blank as red seeps through the cloth Raine knots around the fresh injury, and Regal doesn’t look away, because there is something about her, this girl and the gem around her neck and the smear of blood drying below her unflinching mouth, that compels him to hold his gaze. She’s as unsettling as she is captivating and something in him aches to think of the soul he cannot see beneath the glazed sheen of her eyes, fixed infinitely faraway.

 _Just a coincidence_ , he thinks. Nothing more than folly and loneliness and wishful thinking, and he’s had the time to recognize that part of himself for what it is. She could be anyone at all, and would it matter if she were? Would it make her less of a victim?

He watches Presea rise to her feet, trailing after Lloyd, and the thought – for now – is pushed out of mind. Soon, Regal moves as well. If there is anything the last eight years have taught him, it is to know his place.

—

 _They’re presea flowers,_ she’d said once, in a garden that smelled of rain and summer, face turned shyly to the ground as he laced his fingers between her own. The moment was theirs for the taking, and when he squeezed his hand gently she did the same. _Not many flowers bloom in my hometown,_ Alicia went on, and though she kept her face aside, he could hear the smile in her voice when he slipped one of the blossoms behind her ear, and kissed her cheek.

—

He finds himself rushing between her and a monster’s incoming tackle, and when he looks over his shoulder in the aftermath her name slips out, inadvertent, through gritted teeth. His mouth tastes full of ash and when Presea doesn’t hear him, he feels somehow relieved.

He doesn’t need to do that, Regal knows. She’s strong, and even if he hadn’t seen it for himself she must be. Because if she were anything less Vharley would have made sure of her disposal.

He knows, and yet, he can’t help but feel perhaps that is exactly why he keeps doing it anyway.

—

“Stop looking at her like that,” Genis accuses, later, voice taut and eyes narrowed in what could be construed as valiance, and Regal stills, says nothing. “Or do I have to force you?”

—

 _Just a coincidence_ , he tells himself, over and over again, but still he dreams of a girl with the same hair and eyes and a warmer gaze, dreams of flowers clasped in her palm and the angle of her smile against his own; dreams of her and a girl who looks like her but isn’t, can’t be her, but his hands are wrung around her neck all the same, and he wakes up wondering if perhaps—perhaps…

“Is something the matter?” Presea asks, her soft voice and unclouded eyes bringing him back to reality, and Regal is silent – for he does not know what to say.

**Author's Note:**

> the idea of this was how in game you could get a lv4 ex gem (and thus regal's guilt ex skill) as soon as you beat yuan aka long before regal and presea's connection is revealed


End file.
